Back-office support for hospitality
Your back office,
handled.
I'm Libby Edwards. I do the office work that lean wineries, restaurants and distributors never get to: the CRM, the club run, the guest inbox, the newsletter, the paperwork. You keep running the floor.
Booking now for harvest and the holiday season.
What I take off your plate
CRM & Wine Club
Contact cleanup and dedupe, club processing prep, declined-card follow-up lists, member notes, allocation lists.
Guest Experience
Inbox triage, reservation confirmations, help-desk macros, review-response drafts, visitor follow-ups.
Marketing
Newsletter templates and calendar, release and club emails, social scheduling from your approved copy and photos.
Admin & Systems
SOPs and checklists, shared-drive tidy-up, onboarding packets, vendor lists, license and renewal reminder calendars.
Wholesale & Sales Support
Distributor and account lists, sample-request tracking, depletion reports, price sheets and sell sheets.
Every client starts with the one area causing the most pain. We finish it, then the next item earns its place on the list.
Tools I already work in
Commerce7 · WineDirect · Shopify · Tock · OpenTable · Toast · Klaviyo · Mailchimp · Gorgias · Squarespace · Google Workspace · QuickBooks
How we work together
Start here
The Walkthrough
Fixed fee
Two to three hours with you, on site or by video, through the whole back office: systems, logins, recurring tasks, what's behind and what's broken.
You get a written punch list, ranked by urgency and effort, with a fixed quote for each item. The fee is credited toward your first project if you book within 30 days.
Project work
The Punch List
Fixed fee, quoted after the Walkthrough
One defined job at a time, done in your own tools: a CRM cleanup, a club-run setup, a macro library, a newsletter template.
Fixed price, fixed scope, one revision round. Finished work comes with a short how-to and a handover call.
Monthly
On Call
Monthly fee, quoted after the Walkthrough
A standing block of hours for the recurring work and the small things that break. Starter is 6 hours a month; Standard is 12 hours with priority turnaround.
You get a monthly log of what was done, hours used and anything that needs you. Extra hours are approved by you first. 30-day cancellation.
Most owners go Walkthrough → Punch List → On Call. If you already know what's broken, we can skip straight to the job.
Who I work with
- Boutique wineries and tasting rooms, especially the club and DTC side.
- Independent restaurants and small restaurant groups.
- Wine and beverage distributors with a small sales and admin team.
Usually 4 to 15 people, an owner still in the day-to-day, and a team where everyone already wears three hats.
Why me
I come from the operator side of wine and hospitality: wine sales and distribution, compliance tracking, restaurant management, and building a DTC wine brand from ecommerce and customer support through wholesale and hiring.
So you don't spend the first month explaining what a club run, an allocation or a depletion report is. I know your tools, your vocabulary and what can't slip during crush or the holidays.
What a Walkthrough produces
An example punch list
This is the format, ranked by what's costing the most time. A real one is built from your back office, with a fixed quote beside each item.
- 01
Club processing checklist
The quarterly run currently lands on the owner's weekend. Build a step-by-step checklist, including declined-card follow-up, and run it with you twice before handing it over.
- 02
CRM cleanup and dedupe
4,200 contacts, several hundred duplicates and a pile of dead addresses. Merge records, fix tiers and tags, remove bounces, and leave a 15-minute monthly upkeep routine.
- 03
Tasting-room inbox templates
Eleven questions make up most of the email. Write saved replies for each, set up assignment rules, and put the top five on the website FAQ so fewer arrive.
- 04
Newsletter template and 90-day calendar
One reusable template in your brand, plus a calendar of releases, events and club dates with the copy deadlines marked.
- 05
Renewal and filing reminder calendar
Every license, permit and renewal date on one shared calendar with reminders ahead of each deadline. You still make the filings; nothing sneaks up on you.
Example only, built from the kind of backlog a small winery usually has. Yours will look different.
Running the office isn't complicated. It's just that nobody's job is the office.
How a job actually runs
No surprises, no black box
Every job is written down first
Before work starts, each item gets a ticket: the task, who owns it on your side, the access needed, what "done" looks like, what needs your approval and how it comes back to you.
I work in your accounts
Named user, never a shared owner login, and only the access the job needs. When we're done, you remove it.
You keep the keys
Anything that spends money, changes prices, issues refunds, mails your full list for the first time or signs a filing is yours to approve. Always.
Nothing leaves in my head
Every finished job leaves a short how-to behind, so your team can run it without me.
Questions I get
Before you email me
Do you work on site or remotely?
Both. The Walkthrough happens on site if you're within driving distance of Northern Virginia, or by video anywhere. The work itself is remote, in your own accounts.
Can I skip the Walkthrough?
Yes, if you already know what's broken. We do a short scoping call and I quote that one job.
What do you need from me?
A named login with only the access the job needs, one person who can approve decisions, and about half an hour at the start and end. That's it.
What happens during harvest or the holidays?
We agree the seasonal work and dates up front, before the rush. On Call clients get priority turnaround when something breaks.
How is this different from Edwards Operations?
Edwards Operations is my sister company. It redesigns how a business runs. Edwards Advisory does the work. If you'd be better served over there, I'll tell you.